On May 23, the Washington State Supreme Court ruled 8-1 that presidential electors who do not vote for the presidential candidate who got the most popular votes in their state may be fined $1,000. Guerra v Washington State Office of Administrative Hearings, 95347-3. Here is the decision.
The majority rests its opinion mostly on the U.S. Supreme Court case, Ray v Blair. But that case only settled that political parties may keep presidential elector candidates off their primary ballots if those candidates won’t sign a pledge to be “faithful.” The case was from Alabama, and at the time Alabama presidential elector candidates were nominated in a party primary. No state any longer lets presidential elector candidates run in primaries.
The dissent, by Justice Steven Gonzalez, says, “There is a meaningful difference between the power to appoint and the power to control.” The majority decision does not grapple with his point. The decision isn’t too surprising, given the tenor of the oral argument when the case was argued earlier this year.
Still pending is the Colorado case, in the Tenth Circuit, where the oral argument seemed to indicate that two of the three judges believe that presidential electors have the freedom to vote for whom they please. Baca v Griswold, 18-1173. Thanks to Derek Muller for the link. Here is his analysis of the opinion, from his blog, “Excess of Democracy.”